Lean is all about creating the most value for the customers while minimizing resources, time, energy and effort. Minimizing the waste with maximizing the customer value is the core idea of the lean. Lean thinking and practices helps organizations become both innovative and competitive. Today, around the globe Lean has become a brand new, more effective approach for doing and organizing work. It is a superior business system. In a Lean organization problems are opportunities for meaningful learning rather than errors to be swept under the carpet. Managers acts as coaches helping others. Leadership means creating a management system to support a new kind of engagement with real work at hand.

Lean Operations Cell is dedicated to improvise attitude of the students towards manufacturing industries. In order to sustain in the competitive world, we are trying hard to meet the every changing needs and requirements of the students. Lean management is proving to be a vital element for Indian industries. It is now practiced across a broad range of industries, whether it is manufacturing, construction, services, retail or Government sectors. Although the term Lean is directly associated with manufacturing and production processes, lean philosophies and methods are applicable to all areas of the corporate enterprise. Even IT industries are on verge to adopt this management technique. Several IT industries across the country has started implementation of lean practices. Lean practices enable an organization to better match its production to demand, reduce inventory, reduce its development cycles, and eliminate waste throughout the total enterprise and value chain. The philosophy has its root in manufacturing. As share of manufacturing in India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has declined, policy making institutions like National Manufacturing Competitive Council is encouraging manufacturing sectors to improve the cost competitiveness of various products through application of Lean Manufacturing techniques. During 12th five year plan (2012-17), Govt. of India desired to implement Lean in 500 mini clusters for MSMEs through Lean Manufacturing Competitive Scheme (LMCS).

This creates a challenge as well as opportunity for the academic community not only to understand Indian manufacturing sectors but also contribute in its implementation, assess its sector specific effectiveness. The findings will be useful in terms of creating sector specific frameworks for Lean implementation. Likewise, the learning from implementation of Lean in manufacturing can also be successfully adapted and extended to ever demanding service sectors like Health, Govt. and Infrastructure.

Being located in one of the manufacturing hubs of the country, IIM Kashipur has taken a lead in carrying out research activities in the area of Lean Operations. The programme would enable the local industries to tap into the cumulative implementation knowledge that accumulates within cell. In order to develop interest of the students towards manufacturing sector, Lean operation cell encourages students and acts as a facilitator to carry out live projects at various MSMEs as well as OEMs as a part of Academic-Industry Interaction. This alleviate students to develop better understanding of the processes and allows them to challenge their academic skills in real time problem solving.

Objectives:

To provide consultancy services in the area of implementation of Lean to various sectors and develop sector specific customized Lean analysis toolkits and products that would empower industries to espouse Lean in a more effective way.

To act as a knowledge management Centre for facilitating inter-disciplinary research, documenting the best practices and cases and developing a global and sector specific competitive benchmarking indicators.

To design, develop games, simulation tools and training kits for various segments of industries and impart customized training programmes to various stake holders involved in implementation of lean in order to enhance their capacity building.

To build Lean Management competencies among the students: enable them to work on real-life projects, and facilitate action learning